Toddler Autism Symptom Screening

Because autistic children cannot communicate their feelings verbally, they often manifest their feelings through physical actions, emotional outbursts and social withdrawal. These are common hallmarks of the disorder. If you notice any signs of autism in your child, report the condition to your pediatrician and insist on developmental testing. Early detection equals early treatment, which can drastically improve the symptoms of autism and can even prevent future problems.

This powerful screening questionnaire is designed to help screen your toddler between the ages of 18-30 months for traits commonly found in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). It is not a substitute for seeking advice from a medical professional, and functions solely to do a preliminary risk assessment to help decide on the severity of symptoms that your toddler may be demonstrating.

The screening instrument before you is based entirely off of the Q-CHAT project which builds on over 15 years of research into screening toddlers for Autism at the Autism Research Center at the University of Cambridge. While the instrument has not been completely validated yet, it has demonstrated great accuracy. The questions are designed for a parent to answer, but interpretation is assumed to be done by a health professional.

At the end of the screening, we'll show how your child compares with other children -- both ones with formally diagnosed Autism, and ones who do not have Autism. Early signs fall in these categories:

• Communication—both verbal (spoken) and non-verbal (unspoken, such as pointing, eye contact, or smiling)
• Social interactions—such as sharing emotions, understanding how others think and feel (sometimes called empathy), and holding a conversation, as well as the amount of time a person spends interacting with others
• Routines or repetitive behaviors—often called stereotyped behaviors, such as repeating words or actions, obsessively following routines or schedules, playing with toys or objects in repetitive and sometimes inappropriate ways, or having very specific and inflexible ways of arranging items.

Reference & Credit: Allison C, et al. The Q-CHAT (Quantitative CHecklist For Autism In Toddlers): a normally distributed quantitative measure of autistic traits at 18-24 months of age: preliminary report. J Autism Dev Disord. 2008;38:1414-1425.

DISCLAIMER: We are not endorsed or associated with the Autism Research Center. They clearly indicate that their tools are posted online for use in academic research purposes. None of them are diagnostic: No single score on any of these tests or questionnaires indicates that an individual has an Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC).